Welcome To The Woods 'Kiwi Craft Beer' Dinner presented by The Woodlands Hotel
The Woodlands Hotel

The Woodlands Hotel proudly welcomes 'Better Beer Imports' and their highly acclaimed stable of Kiwi craft brewers for the second episode of our 'Welcome to the Woods' dinner series.

Join us as we take you on a 5 course magical journey through beer and food matching. Enjoy a story or 2 from each of the brewers representing EPIC, 8 WIRED, LIBERTY & HOP FEDERATION breweries.

With such an abundance of core and specialty beers for us to choose from you will definitely be treated to their best. We even have a surprise or two.

First course will be served at 7pm sharp in our cozy, heated, upstairs dining room and we are aiming to have everything wrapped up by 10pm.

Dining will be on communal tables so when purchasing tickets please try to do so as a group although we will try to do our best to seat different groups together but that can't be guaranteed.

Welcome to the Woods ' Epic Brewing'

SO WHY ‘EPIC’? Epic Flavour

It reflected the way I like to brew beer. I like to have big aromas, flavours and taste in the beers.

Epic Challenge

To start a new beer brand in this day and age, in a mature market, dominated by multinationals with huge resources, and the public perception that beer is a low value commodity, is a big challenge.

Epic Journey

Everyone that lives in New Zealand, or travelled here for a holiday, they at some point in their or their ancestors lives had to make an Epic Journey. Whether it be by canoe or commercial airliner they traveled a great distance to the end of the world to be in this beautiful country of New Zealand.

Welcome to the woods '8 Wired Brewing Co'

What's in the name - 8 Wired Brewing?

For all you Non Zealanders, No 8 Wire (it was the 8th type of wire in the catalogue) is a specific gauge of wire originally used for electric fencing. In New Zealand it's use is much more widespread than that though, Kiwi's have used it to fix just about anything, from cupboards to cars, because it was versatile and readily available. Over the years it has become a symbol of the kiwi ingenuity, their ability to fix any problem no matter how limited the resources.

We think this fits our company pretty well: We don't have the resources nor the abilities to run our own brewery, so we make do with what we have. We also think that all our beers have a certain amount of ingenuity, ingenuity in flavour we like to call it. “8 Wired”, as opposed to the more traditional term “No 8 wire”, is to symbolize that our beer is not old school Kiwi draught, kiwi lager and kiwi dark, in fact it is the exact opposite. Still, we're keeping it as Kiwi as we can through the ingredients we choose to use, without ever compromising on quality of course.

Welocme to the woods ' Liberty Brewing Co'

The story of Liberty goes back all the way to when I became dissatisfied by what offerings New Zealand had in terms of beer. In particular: Flavour in Beer. Living out in West Auckland there was not a lot to offer: The local licensing trust controlled what one was able to buy in the local outlets. I had tried all the imported stuff… and this led me to believe that it was possible that there was more to beer than flavourless fizzy lager.

Welcome to the woods 'Hop Federation'

We’re a small craft brewery with a sense of adventure and a passion for making stylish beers with substance. Located in Riwaka, in the idyllic Top of the South, we’re surrounded by hop growers and orchards, and a stone’s throw from beaches, national parks and lots of great recreation destinations. We opened our doors in 2013 so we’re relatively youthful, but we’re seriously dedicated to the art and craft of brewing.

We use mostly New Zealand hop varieties, our malts come from Gladfield maltings in Canterbury, and we think our beers capture the spirit and lifestyle of this special region.

So, if you come into the Woods today you're in for a big Surprise.